(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is
national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. He can be reached at np@canadianislamiccongress.com)

Now that the 34-day Israeli
war against Lebanon has been superseded by a precarious ceasefire, it's time to
reflect on the lessons it can teach everyone involved. Here are the top ten:

1. Low tech weapons can stand
up to high tech ones.

Israel utilized its entire
high tech military arsenal -- stopping short only of using its nuclear bombs --
in its war on Lebanon, causing maximum death, terror, destruction and misery.
Yet in self- defense and response, Hezbollah fighters proved that their low tech
weaponry was still able to slow down the invasion by Israeli ground forces.
Citizens of Israel's northern cities were given a major taste of the terror that
their own army had been inflicting for years on Lebanese civilians by air, sea
and ground strikes.

2. Israel is the world's most
aggressive state in relation to its size.

This lesson is already well
known to surrounding Middle Eastern countries.

Almost every Israeli between
the ages of 18 and 50 is, has been, or will be, a full or part-time (reservist)
member of the military. No other state can match that level of militancy.
Neighboring states on the first line of defense -- Egypt, Jordan, Syria and
Lebanon -- as well as those on the second line -- Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Saudi
Arabia and the smaller Gulf states

-- must follow Israel's
example in this regard. Civilian and military preparedness is the only way to
maintain a balance of power against future Israeli aggression.

3. Israel's neighbors must
include commando units as part of their permanent armed forces.

Middle Eastern countries
comprising the first and second lines of defense against Israeli aggression must
include special commando units in their armed forces that operate independently
from regular armed forces, but follow a similar chain of command. The expanded
flexibility will give these states more balance-of-power capability against
Israel.

4. Israel cannot sustain a
militant society forever.

Israel's war on Lebanon was
the longest in its history -- not because its leaders and citizens wanted it to
be so, but because the Lebanese resistance put up a fight. More and more
Israelis are now wondering if the cost of solving conflicts only through combat
is worth the high cost in lives and resources. No society can maintain Israel's
level of militancy for ever. If Israel takes this lesson to heart, there could
be real hope for peace in the Middle East. If not, cyclic violence will continue
to be the way of life there and societies will deteriorate as a result.

5. There is no freedom of the
press; freedom is reserved for media owners.

Western media coverage of the
Israeli war on Lebanon was, as expected, biased in favor of Israel. This did not
happen haphazardly or by accident.

For example, all the Middle
Eastern offices of major Western media outlets are in Israel. This means that
Western journalists covering the Middle East live in Israel, have Israeli
friends, send their children to Israeli schools, go shopping in Israeli
supermarkets, and so on. The absorption of the Israeli lifestyle affects these
journalists in how they perceive the ownership of news events that affect their
Israeli friends, colleagues, associates, neighbors, children, etc.

6. The U.S. is no friend to
any Middle Eastern nation, including Israel.

Zionist Jews strongly believe
that the U.S. is a great friend of the state of Israel because Washington
supported and encouraged its war against Lebanon. But if you measure friendship
by a different yardstick, the U.S.

has proven that it is not a
true friend of the Israeli people at all.

Just

imagine what might have
happened if U.S. president George W. Bush had sent Israeli PM Ehud Olmert an
urgent email on July 12 (2006) saying:

"You

should first of all negotiate
with Hezbollah about the two kidnapped soldiers. War is very costly in human
lives, for both sides. Look at the mistakes I made in Iraq; don't repeat the
same thing. Pursue all possible diplomatic channels before even remotely
considering armed combat.

America

and our friends in Europe will
help you keep this thing from blowing up.

Sincerely, George."

7. Arab states should learn
from South Korea.

There is a long list of
differences between South and North Korea, but those differences have not
prevented South Korea from saying no whenever the U.S. threatens North Korea
with military action. The divided country shares a common heritage and ancestry,
so political differences must be put aside. It is when Americans try to kill
Koreans that the North and South (although technically still at war) are closest
to unity. This was not the case, however, during Israel's war on Lebanon. The
surrounding Arab states committed a major mistake in not bonding with Lebanon
from day one of the crisis, regardless of their various differences and
disagreements.

It's a

further shame that petty
politics between Arab states were blatantly exploited by both Israel and the
U.S.

8. Ceasefires are for Israel
to violate.

Israel has a long history of
chronic ceasefire violations, notably in 1948,

1967 and 1973 -- and now once
again in 2006. At the time of writing this, the UN has already condemned Israel
for violating the ceasefire in Lebanon.

9. Most Jews still subscribe
to Zionism.

Few Western Jews do not
subscribe to Zionism, the 19th-century political ideology that advocated using
any and every means to justify the creation, expansion and protection of a
Jews-only state in Palestine. Zionism does not recognize the Other (mainly
Palestinians) in its "homeland." Such an ideology, which imposes its own form of
Apartheid, can never lead to peace in the Middle East. It can only feed the
cyclic violence of cold and hot wars.

10. Conflict in the Middle
East is political, not religious.

Israeli F16 fighter-bombers
did not differentiate among the Lebanese they killed and maimed -- Sunni
Muslims, Shi'a Muslims, and Christians were all victims. Religion has been
chronically misused, abused, and distorted in the interests of gaining and
imposing power throughout the entire region.

There is no reason for mainly
Sunni Egypt and mainly Shi'a Iran not to have diplomatic relations as
neighboring Muslim countries. It is only

greed- and

power-based politics, not
faith, keeping them apart. Similarly, there is no reason for the Jewish state of
Israel not to have (and keep!) peace treaties with the states of Palestine,
Lebanon, or Syria. Again it is politics, not religion, that divides them so
bitterly.